Landscape in Provence (Paysage de Provence)

ca. 1908

Here, the schematic design and compressed composition collapsing foreground and background show the increasing influence of Paul Cézanne, who had died in 1906. At this time André Derain began to move away from the shocking, non-naturalistic colors of the paintings he had made just a few years prior while working with Henri Matisse in Collioure. Instead, he began to emphasize the underlying geometry and structure of the landscape in flat, intersecting patches of color that are true to the bright greens, blues, and terracottas of the sunlit South of France.